Actually, we're already a third of the way through the Tagore dance film trilogy because we completed and released our 90-minute, feature film version of Shyama in 2009. Here's a 2-minute excerpt from Shyama.

Now we're about to film the other two 'dance-dramas' to complete the Tagore dance film trilogy in time for Tagore's 150th birth anniversary in May 2011.

This FundBreak campaign aims to raise our initial costs for these two films before sponsors come on board. The £5,000 funding goal is an 'all or nothing' barrier: if we don't make it within the deadline, all the pledges will be returned by FundBreak to the supporters. Of course, if the funding goal is reached before the deadline, pledges can continue to be made right up to the deadline. For more details about how FundBreak campaigns work, see the FAQ.

The initial idea of making a film version of Shyama came to us when Kaberi completed her PhD on the dance style created by Tagore. It seemed to her that, sadly, Tagore's original creation was in danger of being transformed beyond recognition as those who had performed it while he was still alive passed away one-by-one.

As a widescreen film, and with digital technology, not only was it possible to do vital work in cultural conservation but it also became feasible to bring this work to a global audience for the first time.


 

Tagore's 'dance-dramas'

In Tagore's three 'dance-dramas' (nrityanatya), the dialogue is in the lyrics of the songs and the actions are performed by dancers. Among Bengali-speakers, all three (Chitrangada, Chandalika & Shyama) are regarded as classics but few non-Bengalis have come across them so far. This is mainly because they require a large number of performers and they have not previously been translated.

Tagore was one of the great humanists of the 20th century. He knew the power of drama to tell stories that capture a broad spectrum of human emotions and social dilemmas.

Chitrangada is a princess warrior whose quest for love is a conflicting tale of feminism and femininity.

Chandalika is about an outcast who overcomes social prejudice and learns to express herself.

Shyama is the story of love, sacrifice and forgiveness which explores to what extremes people can go for love.

All three title roles are women who face universal and timeless challenges. Their stories are told through songs and the distinctive dance form Tagore created in his final years.

Our initial idea was to create an authentic, reference version of Shyama, which was also Tagore's last major work for the stage. We wanted to recreate as far as possible the original dance styles, stage decoration and costumes which Tagore had used.

Shyama

We completed our film version of Shyama in September 2009. Its world premiere was presented by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to an enthusiastic audience in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. The songs in Tagore's 'dance-dramas' are so well-known among Bengalis that, at Shyama's Asian premiere at the Kolkata Film Festival in November 2009, the audience was singing along with the film.

The Spanish version of Shyama was premiered in October 2010 at the Ourense Film Festival in Galicia, Spain in a special section dedicated to Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, which is being celebrated by UNESCO. The section was presented in cooperation with Professor José Paz, who founded the Tagore Library of Ourense - the largest collection of Tagore-related books outside the Indian subcontinent. Kaberi launched the section with a Tagore dance performance at the opening ceremony of the Ourense Film Festival. To pay tribute to Tagore as an environmental pioneer, decades ahead of today's green movement, Kaberi staged probably the first Tagore-style Brikkhoropon (tree-planting ceremony) in Europe.

Shyama is a ‘digital end-to-end’ feature film, allowing us to use the latest online distribution and promotion techniques to maximise its worldwide distribution.  The English, high-definition version of Shyama has global distribution through IndieFlix . The DVD with all eight language versions is available from IndieFlix and Amazon. There is also a free online version of the film. The soundtrack album is available from online music stores such as iTunes and a book of the English translation of Shyama is available from Amazon. We will publish books of the other translations soon.

We translated Shyama into English ourselves and various friends and well-wishers have helped to translate the film into other European languages. So far, we have eight language versions of the film: Bengali, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish. This means that 1.23 billion people can now appreciate this classic work in their native language. If you would like to help translate it into other languages, please let us know.

Our activities at the Ourense Film Festival attracted a lot of attention in the press, illustrating how Shyama has allowed us to revive interest in Tagore and his work. It also suggests how the complete Tagore dance film trilogy could achieve this even better.

Funding goal

Through this FundBreak campaign, we aim first to raise seed money before sponsors come on board and to develop an active audience for the film trilogy. Thanks to our experience filming Shyama, we know the resources and organisation required, as well as the minimum cost of shooting both films back-to-back in Tagore's home town of Santiniketan in India.

We financed Shyama entirely by ourselves without paying ourselves but paying the other dancers, singers, musicians as well as covering equipment and travel costs. The minimum funding goal of £5,000 would help to cover at least some of these costs for Chitrangada and Chandalika. If we are able to raise more, we could improve on the quality of the filming by hiring a 4-camera team for the shoots and a post-production team.

In May 2011, we are due to celebrate Tagore's 150th birth anniversary at Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. Ideally, we will have completed the trilogy by then, which is more likely if we have raised sufficient funding to hire a post-production team. Otherwise, as with Shyama, Obhi would do the entire post-production himself in his spare time.

Our aim

Simply completing the trilogy is only half the story. The other half is to bring the films to audiences as wide and as appreciative as possible.

The principal aim of the Tagore dance film trilogy is to contribute to the growing global awareness of Tagore’s importance as someone whose ideas and philosophy are very relevant today. More specifically, the trilogy allows us to present a less well-known aspect of Tagore’s classic legacy through the latest digital techniques.

The 'ubiquity-based' digital distribution strategy we pioneered with Shyama caught the attention of Hollywood Reporter in February 2010. We will use the same approach with Chitrangada and Chandalika.

Like all of Inner Eye's productions, the films, their soundtrack albums and books of the translations will be licensed using Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licences. This means that they are open to personal copying, allowing people to give copies to friends they think would like them - maximising their audience reach through personal recommendation in a way which could not be done through conventional advertising.

The business model behind the trilogy is the subject of the editorial 'Embracing the Recognition Economy' in Digital Cinema Report.

UNESCO is marking Tagore's 150th birth anniversary in 2011 and the Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh are coordinating the joint celebrations of the occasion by both countries. We have suggested to the that the films in the trilogy will be used by Indian and Bangladesh Embassies around the world as part of their celebrations.

We have published the first two episodes of the Shyama podcast to explain the background to Shyama and the Tagore dance form. There will be a further eight episodes, through which we will be drawing attention to the project. We have also published a special episode about Shyama at the Kolkata Film Festival, which includes excerpts from the press conference we gave there. Apart from providing financial backing, we hope you will become true fans of our Tagore dance film trilogy and help spread the word about it in various languages.

 

Production team

Kaberi Chatterjee (dancer / producer) is an authority on the Tagore dance form, as well as being one of the leading traditional Manipuri dancers of her generation. Dance has been central to her life since she was three and she has specialised in Manipuri and Tagore dance. She has danced the title roles in various major productions of all three of Tagore's 'dance-dramas'.  Kaberi's website: www.kaberi.eu

Obhi Chatterjee (director / executive producer) grew up in London immersed in Tagore’s culture thanks to his parents (Padma & Jayanta Chatterjee) and their close friendship with leading Tagore singers Rajeshwari Datta, Kanika Banerjee, Nilima Sen and Subinoy Roy. Since marrying Kaberi, Obhi has produced and directed several audiovisual productions. Shyama was his first feature film. Obhi's website: www.obhi.eu

Séamas McSwiney (associate producer for Chitrangada & Chandalika) has worked in film and video since 1985. He has had a wide variety of roles in several hundred productions, ranging from documentaries to commercials, corporates and features. Notable among these was the documentary Abbas Kiarostami: the Art of Living, which he produced with Irish company Harvest Films.

Faruck Haidar (associate producer for Chitrangada & Chandalika) is a social entrepreneur who has held senior management positions in multinational corporations. He has been a consultant on international public service projects with the World Bank, UN and civil society organisations. He recently helped to design, develop and direct  a UNDP-sponsored pilot project called Music for Development: Integration of Deprived Children into Society for a Tagore music school.